No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(48)

He could only imagine how difficult it would feel to be victimized like this, to know that someone had purposely tried to harm her—in her own home, where she should feel safe—and that the person responsible might be the father of her child. Knowing she could lose all of her belongings, when she had so little to begin with, had to be almost as difficult. “I’m not leaving, not unless you and Jayden come with me. It won’t do either of you any good to stand out here in the cold, breathing in this toxic air and watching—” what little you have go up in smoke “—this.”

“We can’t leave,” she said. “There will be...questions I’ll have to answer.”

“Then I’ll wait, too, make sure everything goes okay,” he responded.

She shook her head. “That’s not a good decision.”

They could hear the wail of sirens growing louder as the emergency vehicles drew close.

“Sly will come,” she said. “Someone...someone will call him. And regardless of...of how this got started, he won’t be happy to see you here. He’ll assume...the wrong things.”

The mere mention of Sly made Dawson clench his jaw. “Maybe he’ll assume the right things.”

She gave him a look that indicated she couldn’t possibly understand what he meant by that.

“That he’ll no longer be able to push you around,” he explained. “I’ve had it. I won’t allow it anymore.”

Her mouth formed a worried O. “I don’t want to draw you into this—not to that degree. I just...needed to talk to someone who...who wasn’t connected to the life I lived before, someone I felt was strictly my friend and not his.”

Dawson watched the flames leap higher. “Then you chose the right person, because I’m definitely not his friend.”

*

The temperature wasn’t much less than fifty degrees, so not exactly freezing. But the shock and upset of what was happening, in addition to the cool breeze, made Sadie shiver uncontrollably. As the fire trucks arrived and cut their sirens, which had become almost deafening, Dawson took off his coat and insisted she put it on.

Sadie could smell the scent of Dawson’s cologne before that far more pleasant scent was overwhelmed by the stench of the fire. She could’ve gotten a jacket or blanket from Maude, but Maude was busy trying to direct her husband on where to aim the garden hose, and Sadie didn’t want to interrupt. Although the two had started to spray the house where Sadie lived, hoping to save what they could, the hose provided such a pitiful trickle compared to what was needed that their efforts seemed to do little or no good. Dawson soon persuaded them to spray the surrounding shrubbery and their own house in an effort to stop the fire from spreading instead of trying to put it out altogether.

The first firefighters on the scene yelled for them all to stay back, but the yard was so small there wasn’t anywhere to go. Dawson, still carrying her son, guided her around to the front and insisted she and Jayden get in his truck. He climbed in, too, and started the engine so that he could back down the street to allow more room for the emergency vehicles now gathering en masse, and turn on the heater.

“You warm enough?” he asked Jayden.

“Yeah.” Her son, who was now sitting between them, climbed up on his knees to be able to see out the window. “Can I go watch the firefighters?”

“No!” Sadie replied. “You could get hurt. We need to stay here. You heard what they said.”

Several of the neighbors streamed out of their houses to see what was going on. Sadie watched them gather in a frightened and questioning cluster on the opposite side of the street.

“Is that Daddy?” Jayden pointed when the first police car appeared.

Sadie’s heart jumped into her throat as she squinted against the glare of headlights. But the man who climbed out from behind the wheel once those lights were turned off wasn’t Sly; it was Leland Pinter. “No, that’s not him.” She breathed a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t more than ten or fifteen minutes later that Sly did pull up. She curled her fingernails into her palms as she watched him get out. She had a feeling he’d cause trouble. He didn’t hurry to the back like everyone who’d arrived before him. He didn’t seem to care about the fire, not as much as he cared about the fact that Dawson’s truck was parked so close to her place and she was sitting in it.

How had he even noticed them? If he’d just heard her house was burning, wouldn’t he automatically run to the back to see if she and Jayden were okay?

Apparently not. Nothing got past him. He didn’t even look worried as he approached her side of the vehicle. Expression hard, eyes flinty, he looked angry instead.

She glanced at Dawson in a silent appeal to let her handle Sly and rolled down the window.

Sly’s eyes narrowed even further as he looked over at Dawson. He didn’t even acknowledge Jayden when Jayden said a soft “Hi, Daddy.”

“What’s going on?” he demanded without preamble.

Thankfully, Dawson refrained from responding. Given Sly’s volatile temper, Sadie was grateful for Dawson’s forbearance.

“Someone set my house on fire.” She was so upset she had a hard time keeping the accusation out of her voice.

“Someone,” he repeated, obviously grasping that she believed he was to blame.